Good morning sweet friends! It's a typical Tuesday here...and really just a typical day. A computer/coffee morning before feeding the 4 hungry baby birds...
I had mentioned a post or so ago, to fill you in on our homeschooling adventures and how/why we decided to start! I thought I'd start with a bit of it now;)
So as thoughts would pop into my head, I'd share them with Glenn...we'd talk about it, disagree about certain things, agree about other things...but all the while never deciding TO homeschool. The topic would just KEEP coming back to me/us, every couple weeks. I know it was the Lord, because of the way, and frequency, the subject kept popping up.
After a summer of continued conversation we decided, with little hesitation, to send our girls to public school. We're so fortunate to live in a good school district, with a great elementary school and even better teachers! The girls had a great first day, great first weeks and even great first months. All the while, homeschool thoughts lingered, and even continued to "bombard" us. So, after months of casually discussing it, we finally felt the Lord nudging us to consider it more seriously.
I told Glenn I felt like at the very least, I thought we should start to look into homeschooling, and what exactly it would take, how we'd start, legalities that needed to be dealt with, when we'd start, cirriculum we'd use, etc, etc, etc....
So we did. We researched. We talked. We prayed. We thought. Then eventually after we were fairly sure it was a good choice for our girls, we asked them. After a few questions from them, and conversation between all 4 of us, they agreed and we decided to do it!
There was just one small topic of disagreement...timing...WHEN to start. Glenn wanted to wait until the following school year, I thought we should start after Christmas. Again, after prayer, discussion, and just thinking it through, we decided that some adjustment time would be good for all of us, before starting homeschool in 3rd grade for Mayah, which is a known tough academic year. That is primarily what led us to our decision of taking them out of public school mid-year.
Some of our reasons for pulling them from public school are:
allowing our girls more time to be kids, vs being in school equivalent to a full-time job/40hr a week
having a say over the cirriculum and what they're being taught & exposed to
US being the ones who get to spend SO much time with them, vs other adults (who are practically strangers to us)
having the time to teach them valuable life skills...we're working on getting them more involved with chores and helping around the house (this part is especially exciting for me) :)
providing more sleep time for them! they were waking up everday shortly after 6, to catch the bus at 6:55...which was just waaaay to early for them, ages 6 & 7!
There you have it! We've made our decision, made the transition and currently have a whole 9? school days behind us:) I suppose my next post will have to include how it's going so far...because I'm sure you're dying to know;)
***Guess what? It's after 8:00 and Mayah is STILL SLEEPING...ahh, the perks***
wow Kendra....this is a great blog...almost gets my wheels turning! love that you guys have put so much time and prayer into it. I am sure its going to be such a blessing to have your children (our heritage from the Lord) at home learning such wonderful principles for life while getting a good education.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading this Kendra. It was neat to read how you reached your decision. Homeschool has always been in the back of my mind too. But, the timing doesn't feel right to me/ I haven't felt that nudge of the Spirit just yet. So, for now, we've been happy for the most part with the public school. We like our distric too (CV) & the new principal at our elementary school who's in his second year there is great. And, he's a graduate of Messiah College so we feel very comfortable with him (unlike the principal who was there before him).
ReplyDeleteI have a book I picked up years ago that I should pass on to you. It's called Home Grown Kids: A Practical Handbook for Teaching Your Children at Home by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (foreward by James Dobson). It's an older book, published in 1981, but I remember thinking that it had excellent info, was easy to read, and didn't seem at all outdated.
Great reasons.. And blessings to your first year!
ReplyDeleteHere from the Hop.